


Mabel Haunted

by ToothPasteCanyon (DannyFenton123)



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-11 10:24:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7887583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DannyFenton123/pseuds/ToothPasteCanyon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper was killed in Weirdmaggeddon. Of course Mabel's upset about it, but it's been a year and she's been able to move on. When she returns to Gravity Falls next summer, however, a series of odd occurrences lead her to believe her brother isn't as gone as she thought he was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Eenie, meenie, miney, YOU!" Next to Mabel in Bill's hand, Dipper suddenly slumped over motionless.

"Dipper?" Mabel gave her brother's shoulder a shake, faintly hearing her Grunkle Ford shouting something. There was no response. "Dipper, wake up!"

Suddenly the hand that was holding the twins opened and the two fell to the floor. Heart pounding in her chest, Mabel ran to her brother's body, shaking him, calling his name…

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mabel woke up with a jolt, looking around her in sudden panic before gradually readjusting to her surroundings. She was on a bus. The girl felt her luggage and reached down to pet a sleeping Waddles sitting on the floor by her feet; everything was there, safe.

She'd long stopped having the distinct feeling someone was missing wherever she went, but that dream had evoked some memories.

"Coming up to Gravity Falls, Oregon!" So did this particular destination. But despite these niggling feelings, she couldn't help but break into a beaming smile at the sight of the people waving at her from the bus stop.

Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford, Soos and Wendy. These were the people she couldn't wait to see in person again this summer! That was why as soon as the bus stopped she dashed to the door and squeezed through it.

"Kid!" Mabel charged towards her Grunkle Stan first, tackling the old man with a huge hug around his neck. Stan was laughing, hugging her back just as tightly. "Happy to see you too! Wow, you've grown tall! And a little heavier - ow, ow, three seconds in and you're already killing my back!"

Mabel let go, looking at Stan and giggling. The old man raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny? Have I spilt something on me or something?"

"You're wearing my goodbye sweater, Grunkle Stan!"

"Yeah, so?" Stan scratched his head. "Oh, I suppose it's not goodbye, but… it seemed appropriate, you know? It's not like I'm wearing it any other day-"

"Oh, come on Stanley." Ford stepped forward to give his brother a light punch. "Your great uncle has been wearing that any chance he gets. Says it reminds him of you."

"What? No I haven't! We've just been going to, you know, some cold places. And it's not like you ever knitted me any other sweater than this one."

Mabel's eyes shone. "Grunkle Stan, I will knit you so many sweaters this summer."

"Yeah?" Stan ruffled his great niece's hair. "Well, knit some for Ford too, some real nerdy ones. He wears that red one so much you'd think he doesn't have anything else."

"Hey," Mabel felt somebody tap her shoulder, and she turned to see Wendy, Soos just behind her. "You promised us hugs when you last wrote us, and we're here to collect."

Mabel pulled the two into a group hug. "Hugs delivered!"

"Hambone, you ready for the best summer of your life?"

"Honestly?" Mabel scratched the back of her head. "I think I'm just happy to see you guys again."

Before anybody could respond there was a call from the bus. "Hey, miss, you left your luggage in here! And this pig…"

"I got it!" Stan quickly slipped into the bus, and a second later he walked out with all the luggage and Waddles trailing behind him.

"Hey, Waddles!" Wendy grinned and picked up the pig. "Nice to see you as well. How were you able to get him on the bus?"

Mabel looked over to Stan, who was handing a few green notes to the bus driver. "Grunkle Stan called ahead."

"Alright!" Ford spoke as soon as the bus drove off. "To the car, everyone!"

"To the car!" Stan shifted some of the luggage off of his back. "Sheesh, what did you pack in here? A bowling alley?"

"I can take it." Mabel dashed over and picked up the bag, noting it was blue, cylindrical and had 'PIEDMONT' stitched to the side. Though she'd covered it in stickers, she remembered it used to be Dipper's bag. Her heart dipped for a moment before she pushed it out of her mind. Not here.

Mabel pointed forwards. "To the car, everyone!"

The car ride was filled with tales from Stan and Ford's adventures out on the Stan-O-War. Some of them, like Ford's tale of the tower of water held up by a magical blue gemstone, were described with such scientific terms it was hard to follow at times. Some of them, like Stan's account of the time he punched a giant squid in the face, were clearly embellished.

All of them sounded amazing.

"Wow, Mr Pineses." Soos' eyes were wide. "That sounds so amazing!"

"What can I say? It was some nice quality time with my brother!" Stan playfully punched Ford's shoulder, then turned around in his seat to grin at Mabel. "And I'm sure we'll have even more amazing adventures this summer with you, pumpkin!"

Mabel laughed lightly. "Haha, I think I'm still all adventured out, you know, from everything that happened last summer…"

She trailed off as she realized the car had gone silent. Stan turned back to the front. "Y-yeah, kid, fair enough."

"I mean," Mabel stretched a smile. "All those failed summer romances and stuff! Those were real awful adventures; I won't be doing any of that this year!"

Wendy laughed. "Oh, yeah, those were a bust. But we can do so much other fun stuff; this summer's gonna be awesome!"

"I bet!" Mabel gasped as they started pulling up to the Mystery Shack, pressing her face to the side. "Oh my gosh, the Mystery Shack! I haven't seen you in forever."

"Welcome home, kid." Stan smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as the car stopped, Mabel dashed over to the Shack and threw open the door. There was the gift shop, filled with a bunch of startled customers.

"Mystery Shack, I'm back!" The girl shouted, oblivious to several odd looks directed her way. Soos quickly caught up.

"Nothing to see here, dudes! This is just my old boss' great niece."

Everyone continued to stare.

Waddles wandered up next to Soos, and the man quickly picked him up. "And she's brought this cute pig, everyone! Five, no, ten bucks a photo!"

With a shout, all the tourists flocked to Soos, waving dollar bills in the air. Mabel raised her eyebrows, impressed.

"Wow, Soos! You're really good at this."

"I learned from the best." Mabel watched as Wendy ran past her and and started collecting money. "Go put your stuff in your room, Hambone! Wendy and I got this."

Mabel slipped past the gift shop and opened the door into the house part. She started running up the stairs, but stopped when she heard Stan call out for her to wait.

"Hey, kid," Stan, who was carrying all of Mabel's luggage, set it down at the base of the stairs. "My brother and I thought you'd like a different room this time round. Come on, I'll show you!"

The old man led Mabel through the house to a fancier door with little gold designs around it. She recognized it immediately. "Grunkle Ford's room? Last time it was all creepy and stuff with the carpet."

"Aah, we touched it up a bit. Look!" He opened the door to a very different room than Mabel was expecting. The first thing she noticed was the fluffy pink carpet, then her eyes wandered to the bright, clean bed with a bedside light and the desk with a spinny chair and a basket for Waddles next to it. Everything was lit with a warm evening light from the window.

"Wow." Mabel blinked. "G-Grunkle Stan, this is amazing!"

"It was Wendy's idea. Turns out when you remove some of Poindexter's nerd stuff, it's actually a pretty nice room!" He watched with a smile as his great niece jumped onto the carpet and started making snow angel shapes in it.

"So soft!" She sat up, and giggled as her hair fluffed up. "And static-y! But this won't switch bodes or anything, will it?"

Stan chuckled. "My brother said it won't, so I think we're safe there. Now let's go get your bags!"

"Wait!" Mabel took out a small digital camera. "I gotta take a first summer picture with this awesome room and you!" She put an arm around Stan, and turned the camera lens around to point at them. She pressed it until she heard a click, then turned it back to look at the image. "It's a little off centre."

"Ehh, it looks fine." Grunkle Stan offered a hand. "Now let's go get your bags, pumpkin."

Mabel took her grunkle's hand, bouncing around in excitement. "Thank you guys so much! I can already tell this is gonna be the best summer ever!"

"Haha, I hope so. Would make it worth all those emails your folks sent me just to let you stay here again."

"Oh, haha…" Mabel's smile dropped. "Sorry."

"Nothing to say sorry for, kid." The old man stopped right by the stairs and kneeled down to look his great niece straight in the eyes. "And you know if you want to talk about… you know, you can always come to your Grunkle Stan, okay?"

"Yeah." Mabel rubbed the back of her head. "Thanks."

Grunkle Stan's face creased in a gentle smile, then he abruptly stood up. "Right, ahem. So let's go get those bags- huh?"

The bags were gone.

"Hey, Stanford!" The old man shouted. "Where'd you put Mabel's stuff?"

Stanford popped his head out of the living room. "What? I didn't move anything. Was it Soos or Wendy?"

Mabel opened the door to the gift shop, where she saw the two and Waddles still surrounded by a crowd; they were getting quite the mileage out of that pig. "Nope, they're still with the tourists."

Stan frowned. "Well, it wasn't a ghost who moved it!" He tapped his chin. "I bet I know where it is. Wait here one second, Mabel."

Mabel watched as her great uncle marched up the steps and came back down with her luggage and a massive scowl. "Ugh, I knew somebody moved it to the Twin Room. I thought we briefed everyone on this!"

Ford shrugged.

"Anyway kid, let's bring this stuff to your new room." Stan stumbled back over to the room and set everything down. "There! So you wanna do some unpacking? We'll call you for dinner."

"Sounds great!" Mabel grinned and gave Stan a hug. "Thanks for everything, Grunkle Stan!"

"It's no problem, kid. We're glad to have you back." Stan waved as he gently closed the door, leaving Mabel to her own devices.

With a happy grin, she opened a bag and started to unpack. The girl started with a big pink backpack full of clothes first, and before long she was already at the last one, Dipper's old blue bag.

Mabel sighed, unzipping it and taking out a new scrapbook she bought recently. "A whole summer in Gravity Falls without you, Dipper." She walked over to her desk and gently laid the scrapbook down on the wood. "It's going to be really different, and not in a good way."

Mabel paused, opening to the first page. "Well, it's not all bad. Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are getting along, there's probably tons of mysteries you'd've loved to solve, and this time round we won't have stupid Bill or Gideon to worry about!" She took out her camera and printed the image of her and Stan, and stuck it on the first page with a little bit of glue.

Mabel smiled softly as she looked at the picture. "Yeah, it won't be bad at all. I'm gonna have the best summer ever." She closed the book. "Just like you'd want me to."


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't long until Mabel was called to dinner, where she saw Ford, Stan and Soos had cooked up a massive serving of Stancakes.

"Don't get used to it, kid." Stan had said. "Soos just had some leftover pancake mix in the fridge."

Mabel's eyes went wide when she saw the massive stack on her plate. "That's a lot of leftovers." To everyone's amazement she still managed to scarf the entire pile down.

"Jeez, kid, were you starving or something?"

"You're bigger on the inside than you are on the outside!"

"Yes, Soos, I agree. I think Mabel just broke several laws of physics."

"Well, I'm full!" Mabel pushed back her chair and rested two hands on her stomach. "Maybe a little bit too full, oof…"

The four continued catching up for a while, but it soon became apparent Mabel was slowly drifting off. Soos talked about the Mystery Shack and how he'd managed to double profit 'just by making the attractions a little cuter!'

"Well, I know somebody who specializes in making stuff cute." Ford winked at Mabel, who was sleepily oblivious.

"Really?" The girl struggled to keep her eyes open. "Who's… that…"

Stan lightly nudged his great niece. "You, knuckle-" They watched as Mabel tumbled off the chair and started snoring on the floor next to Waddles. "-head. Wow, somebody's real tired."

"She's had a long bus ride, I suppose." Ford smiled down at Mabel, then back up at his brother. "Anyway, she's not the only one ready for bed. I'm heading to the Twin Room, you coming?"

"I'm gonna take her to bed first." Stan lightly scooped up Mabel in his arms. "Give me a- Soos, what are you doing?"

"That's so… sweet, Mr Pines!" Soos brought out a camera. "I gotta take a picture!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's not like I'm gonna leave her to sleep out here on the floor… 'cause I spent money on that bedroom, you know! Mainly the carpet."

So Stan carried Mabel over to her bedroom and laid her down on her bed. He drew the blinds and softly closed the door, leaving her alone in the peaceful room.

Well, almost. In the darkness a soft whisper carried itself over to the sleeping girl: "Goodnight, Mabel."

Mabel sighed and turned over. Deep in the world of dreams, she mumbled back: "Goodnight, Dipper."

Mabel was woken up in the morning by an airhorn. She jumped awake, eyes wide, to see Soos standing by the door.

"Morning, Mabel! Time for your employee training!"

Mabel sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Soos, you interrupted my dream! I was having a good one, with unicorns!"

"Sorry, Hambone." Soos paused. "Wait, don't you hate unicorns?"

Yeah, I was punching them in the face!" She blinked. "Wait, employee training? We never had any employee training last year."

"Oh, Mr Pines number 2 was showing me some studies: apparently training actually increases profit and stuff. It sounds unlikely, but hey, I'll believe anything that looks official." Soos brought out a small stack of yellowed papers that looked more like they belonged in a museum than an office. "I found these Mystery Shack employee safety manuals So I was thinking I could read all this to you during breakfast – what do you say, dude?"

Mabel rubbed her chin. "Depends… will you do funny voices?"

"Oh, yeah! I can do all the funny voices you can think of: robot, compulsive singing disorder, Darth Vader… I also do a pretty good Golem impression." He looked over to Waddles still sleeping in his basket by the desk. "I think I even still have some pig language left over from that time I switched bodies with Waddles. So," He raised a hand for a high five. "is it a deal? Don't leave me hanging!"

Mabel got out of bed, walked up to the man and solemnly pressed her hand into his. "Done."

Ford shouldn't have been as surprised as he was when Soos and Mabel burst into the living room singing the employee safety manual at the top of their lungs. Stan didn't seem to find it surprising; he sat in his chair through the whole ordeal, head in the newspaper and coffee in his hand like a typical non-morning person.

"In the event of a fiiiire," Soos sang. "The exit is that way, and the fire extinguisher is right heeeere!" He pointed to a space clearly devoid of a fire extinguisher. "Huh. I guess this document needs updating. Anyway, that's it."

Mabel clapped. "That was so cool! The power of funny voices makes everything better!" She looked to Stan. "Why didn't you read this to us last summer?"

The old man turned a page. "Kid, the legal mumbo jumbo surrounding businesses is like any other terms of service; the more I put off reading it, the less I want to know what I've been agreeing to all these years."

"You could read it in a funny voice!"

"Not gonna happen. I don't do funny voices."

Ford chuckled. "You sound like Dad."

"What? No!" Stan sat up. "I'd like to see you do one of those funny voices, Poindexter."

"Ahh, fair enough." Ford stood up. "Well, I'm going down to the lab now. Call me for lunch!"

The three watched him go, then looked to Stan.

"What?" The old man grumbled. "I'm not moving from here. The news is on in five minutes."

Soos blinked. "Didn't you just read a newspaper, Mr Pines?"

As he spoke, the TV suddenly sprang to life in a blaze of black and white. "Salutations, ladies and gentlemen! You're watching the black-and-white-period-piece-old-lady-boring-movie channel, up next is-"

Stan shut off the television and glared at the two. "I was gonna switch the channel. Now don't you knuckleheads have some work to do?"

"Oh, yeah." Soos grinned at Mabel. "You ready for your first day back on the job?"

Mabel put a hand to her mouth, making heavy breathing sounds as she said, "Yes, emperor. I am ready."

"Haha, that's a great impression of Mr Pines when I watch him sleep!" Soos looked back to Stan, whose head had whipped around in a very alarmed manner. "I meant nothing by that comment."

A few minutes later, Soos had Mabel designing attractions out of junk while he was sorting out the change in the cashier. She had a creepy-looking doll in a white dress, a video game controller with a fraying wire and a toothbrush.

Mabel frowned, stroking her chin and letting her imagination take her in slightly disturbing directions with these three items. The girl's face lit up with a bright idea, and within a couple seconds she had removed the doll's head and stuck the video game controller on in its place. She then wrote a sign for it: 'THE FUTURE OF ARE SPACIES?'

"Hmmm…" Mabel stepped back, feeling that something was missing. She stuck the toothbrush in the doll's hand, but that still didn't quite finish the job.

"Wait… aha!" With a grin, Mabel plugged the controller in the wall. The frayed wires started sizzling and sparking, much to her satisfaction. "Mini fireworks! And Soos told me where the fire escape is, if anything happens!" She brushed the sparks off of her sweater. "When anything happens."

"Looks great, Hambone!" Soos gave her the thumbs up, then held up two different hats. One was a baseball cap with a question mark on it, the other with a shooting star. "I was thinking of putting these by the front, but there's only enough shelf space for one kind. Which one do you prefer?"

At that moment, there was a crash from Soos's office. The man looked up "Hey, did you hear that?"

"Yeah." Mabel put her hands on her hips. "This looks like the start of a summer full of supernatural adventures. Good thing I have a new… grappling hook!" She brandished her weapon.

"Haha, totally." Soos straightened his fez. "There is no way this random sound could not be something weird. Let's go check it out, dude."

Mabel and Soos crept up to the door and slowly opened it, revealing…

"Aww." Mabel's face fell. "It's just a box that fell over."

Soos went over to pick the box up. "That's too bad. I was really pumped for something… something..." He trailed off

"Soos? What's wrong?" Mabel raised an eyebrow and walked over. She then realized what had gotten the man so worked up: it was a box full of pine tree hats.

"I'm so sorry, Hambone," Soos lifted the box right side up. "I don't know how this fell, it was on the first level!"

"It's fine, Soos." Mabel shrugged. "Just a bunch of hats, right?"

Soos laughed a little too loudly. "Oh, yeah, I'm glad you think that way Hambone. 'Cuz if Mr Pines died or anything, I would probably just burst into tears whenever I see something like a red fez, you know? Actually, I'd probably burst into tears even if I didn't see a red fez. BECAUSE NO, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!" He wiped his eyes, shuddering. "I don't want to think about Mr Pines dying ever again. Hey, what were we talking about?"

Mabel looked towards the door. "Oh, nothing important."

As Soos was cleaning up, Mabel wandered back into the gift shop, hands in her pockets, looking down at the floor. She looked to her video game doll attraction, and then she stopped. And her jaw dropped.

Because there was a blue pinetree hat inexplicably sitting on it.

"Oh, hey, kid!" She turned to see her Grunkle Stan rushing across the gift shop. "I just need to use the outhouse before the commercials run out. For the news, you know!"

"H-hey, Grunkle Stan."

Stan slowed to a halt, and looked at his grand niece a raised eyebrow. "Hey, kid, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost!" He paused. "That felt like an appropriate expression."

"I'm fine, Grunkle Stan." Mabel shook herself, inching towards the snack machine. "I just want to talk to my Grunkle Ford about something."

"Huh." Stan watched her go. "She looked like she had something really big on her mind, maybe I should-"

"And now, we're back to The Duchess Approves!" The TV blared, and Stan jumped in panic.

"Oh no, I'm gonna miss the funeral!" He dashed back to the living room. "I'm coming, Duchess!"


	4. Chapter 4

Mabel stepped into the elevator underneath the shack, all of a sudden feeling a little foolish. It sounded ridiculous in her head; Dipper's ghost, in the shack? She'd just reacted when she saw the hat, jumped to conclusions. There could have been tons of reasons why that hat ended up on her attraction, like… like…

She didn't know, but she knew Ford would probably have some smart explanation for it. And then he'd look at her with that uncomfortable pitying expression she noticed people put on whenever she mentioned Dipper, and it'd be weird between the two of them for a few days.

Still, here she was, arriving at floor three, to ask her great uncle about ghosts. It'd be hard to turn back now.

The door opened, and Mabel was confronted with her Grunkle standing in front of the elevator, a quizzical frown on his face. Now there was no way to turn back.

"Hi, Grunkle Ford." Mabel laughed nervously, stepping out of the elevator. "Have you been standing like that all morning?"

"No, but I heard somebody was coming down." Ford clasped his arms behind his back "May I ask what you're doing down here? I don't remember you having a particular interest in my research last summer."

"You got me there." Mabel rubbed her neck. "That was all Dipper, with the journals and stuff."

And there was that pitying expression she dreaded. "Oh, yes… Dipper. I… didn't know him for long, but he certainly had the makings of a great paranormal researcher. Would have made an excellent apprentice."

Mabel cringed, and the old man must have noticed. "Look, Mabel, maybe I'm not the best person to speak to about this-"

"But that's not why I came down here!" She blurted out, then hesitated. Ford nodded for her to go on. "I wanted to ask you about ghosts."

"Ghosts?" Ford immediately rushed over to his desk and pulled out a red journal labeled '4'. He flipped through it. "That's another entry I need to replace, since that demon burned all my research."

Mabel's heart sank. "So, you don't know about ghosts?"

"What? No, don't worry." Ford knocked on his temple, which gave out a metal clanking sound as he did. "I've spent most of my life studying the anomalies of Gravity Falls. Everything I know about them is safe in my mind." He paused, thinking. "Ghosts, you say? Those creatures are… disappointing, to say the least."

Mabel frowned. "Why are they disappointing, Grunkle Ford?"

"Well, when a person passes, their drive to continue existing can sometimes leave an imprint on their environment. Unfortunately even the strongest imprints are incomplete and thus result in an incomplete entity, comprised only of its most dominant-"

"Whaaat?"

Ford sighed. "Mabel, to explain it in simple terms I will use the example of a sieve and flour. The largest-" He stopped abruptly.

"Go on, Grunkle Ford!" Mabel tried for a smile. "I like cooking, so this should be easy to understand!"

Ford spoke in a lower voice, looking his great niece right in the eye with an unreadable expression. "Before I continue, I want to ask you something, Mabel."

"Yes?"

"Is there a specific reason you're asking me about ghosts?" Ford queried. "Something you've observed? Someone you… have in mind?"

Mabel laughed nervously, rubbing her arm. "Haha, well, funny story…"

"Is it to do with Dipper?"

"Well, maybe?" She shrugged helplessly. "I just saw something weird; it looked kinda like something a ghost would do, I guess?"

"Hmm…" Ford stood up to his full height, stroking his chin. "I had theorized something like this might happen, but so soon?"

"Grunkle Ford?"

Suddenly, Ford started tearing up the lab in a frenzy, throwing up pieces of paper and fragile looking objects in a way Mabel hadn't seen him do before. "Where is it, where is it? Ugh, it's been so long since I've needed it…"

"Needed what?"

"It must still be in the bunker!" Ford smacked his forehead immediately started gathering things from his surroundings, among them included his journal, what looked like a thick black bracelet and a large crossbow. He threw on a heavy dark trenchcoat and began storing all the items inside.

"Wait, Grunkle Ford!" Mabel threw up her hands. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"

Ford looked down at Mabel, seeming to calm down just a little. He reached out and ruffled his great niece's hair with a six-fingered hand. "Mabel, it's nothing. I'll be back by dinner, okay?" He paused. "But If I am gone any longer, tell Stanley to 'release the bombs', okay?"

Mabel grabbed her great uncle's hand and held it firmly, looking very worried. "Release the bombs?! That doesn't sound like nothing!"

"It's just a code." He extracted his hand and walked quickly towards the elevator.

"But, where are you going?"

"See you for dinner!" Ford waved as the doors closed.

"But-" It was too late, and with a sigh Mabel watched the elevator numbers tick back up to one. Then she shrugged. "Huh, I wonder what that was all about! Well at least he didn't think I was crazy… or crazier than I already am, right…?"

Mabel trailed off as she realized she was three stories below the earth, in a creepy lab, talking to herself. "Huh. You got me… me!" She placed her hands on her hips. "Wow, I really am crazy. Hahaha, hahaha, hahahahaha! Yeah…"

Once she stopped laughing, it returned to that eerie silence. Mabel cleared her throat and awkwardly headed towards the elevator, glad nobody had been there to witness that rather interesting moment.

While Ford was gone, Mabel was up in the gift shop, peddling her video game doll to the tourists with a rather excessive amount of enthusiasm. At the same time she was keeping a close eye on her environment, watching, waiting for some sort of ghostly event to happen like what she'd witnessed earlier.

It never came.

Soon it was lunch break. Everyone wondered where Ford was, but Mabel's shrug and explanation of, "He's doing weird research stuff." was more than enough to satisfy everyone. After lunch, the shack opened again and more tourists came again.

Mabel just couldn't wait for her Grunkle Ford to be back with whatever mysterious thing he had gone to fetch. This made the afternoon pass by incredibly slowly, and by the time the door closed on the last tourist she was lying face-down on the floor.

"Now that was a good day!" Soos lifted up his eyepatch and started thumbing through the day's earnings. "I can't wait to show Wendy tomorrow. So Mabel, how did you enjoy your first day on the job with Soos?"

"Soooo boooorrrring." Mabel mumbled.

Soos' smile dropped. "Oh. Sorry, hambone."

"No, no, wait!" Mabel shot up, looking stricken. "Blarg! I didn't mean it was boring to work here, I had a lot of fun! I just can't wait for Grunkle Ford to get home."

"Oh? Wasn't he out, doing research stuff?"

"Yeah." Mabel wandered over to a window to look at the orange sky. "He said he'd be back by dinner, and if he wasn't to tell Grunkle Stan something about bombs. I just couldn't stop thinking about it all day!"

"That sounds exciting." The man walked over to stand next to Mabel. "Hey, is that him over there?"

Mabel looked to where Soos had pointed, and indeed there was a man in a brown coat approaching them. She saw he was cradling one if his arms as if it was hurt, and she immediately rushed out of the shack to see what was the matter.

"Grunkle Ford!" Mabel raced right up to the man, who gave her an odd look before breaking out into a wide smile. "Are you hurt?"

"What? No." Ford lifted his hand to reveal what looked like a thick black bracelet wrapped around his arm.

"What's that?"

"Nothing of importance, child." The old man then reached inside his coat and brought out what looked like a wooden chopping board, but with elegant black letters typed from A-Z on its front. With it came a smaller wooden triangle with a hole through the middle. He handed both of them to his great niece. "There you go."

"What is this?" Mabel frowned down at it. The wood was cold to the touch, and though the triangle seemed separate from the main board it mysteriously did not fall off.

"It's an Ouija Board. You use it to talk to ghosts."

Mabel's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"You use it to talk to ghosts." Ford walked past Mabel. "Have fun with it, child."

He left Mabel standing out in the parking lot, staring down at the Ouija Board in her hands. As she watched in amazement, the triangle began to move around the board, stopping with the circle around various letters for a moment before continuing on its path.

H-E-L-L-O-M-A-B-E-L

HELLO MABEL. Then: THIS IS DIPP-

Mabel dropped the Board, reeling in shock. "No, no, this can't be happening. No way! Oh my gosh, Dipper?" The girl picked it up. "Sorry. I just can't believe it's actually you!"

E-R.

"Oh my gosh, I don't believe it! I-I've missed you so much, I've got so many things to tell you, this almost doesn't feel like it's real! I've got to tell someone, someone…" She snapped her fingers. "I've got to tell Grunkle Stan!"


	5. Chapter 5

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan!" The old man looked up from his chair to see Mabel running towards him.

"Hey, pumpkin!" He pointed at the TV. "I was thinking we could watch some Ducktective-"

"Look at this!" Mabel shoved a wooden board in Stan's face.

"A block of wood?"

"No, it's a wee… a wee… a Luigi Board! That's how you say it, right?"

"One of those things?" Stan snorted, pushing the board away. "Kid, those ghost boards are the oldest, cheapest scam in the book. Even I didn't stoop as low as to sell those things… much."

"But you don't understand! Look!" She held it out, and the triangle began to move.

"G, R, U, N, K, L, E." Stan frowned. "Gru Enkley? I don't get it."

"Grunkle!" Mabel gripped the board. "He means Grunkle Stan!"

"He? Grunkle? You're not saying-" Stan's eyes widened with understanding. "Oh. Whoa. Uh, hey… Dipper." The triangle started moving again. "H-E-Y-G-R-"

"Hey Grunkle Stan? I think that's what he's saying." Mabel grinned. "I'm very good at putting words in people's mouths."

"Welp, I just talked to an invisible dead person." Stan looked to the TV. "I need to sit and rethink everything over an episode of Ducktective. You and your… brother, staying?"

Mabel hugged the Board to her chest. "Well, I was going to go in my room and catch up with my brother." She paused. "My brother. That sounds really weird to say. I'm going to have to get used to it again!"

"Have fun, kiddo." Stan sat staring at the TV for a few moments as Mabel left. Then he blinked and looked around. "So I'm watching Ducktective on my own. Hmph."

At that moment Ford walked through the hallway, and Stan waved at him. "Hey, Poindexter! Want to watch some Duck-"

Ford turned his head around 90 degrees and hissed at Stan before continuing on his way. Stan blinked in mild surprise. "Sheesh, wonder what's his problem."

Meanwhile Mabel had run over to her room and set the board down. She found a pen and looked everywhere for paper before eventually settling to rip a blank page out of her scrapbook. Then she laid down on the soft pinkness of her carpet and grinned at the Board.

"Okay, okay, I'm calm, just-" She squealed in excitement. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this is just so amazing! I can't believe it's actually you, Dipper! I thought I'd never see you again – well, I can't see you still but I can talk to you!"

The triangle started to move around the board, and Mabel quickly recorded the letters it stopped on.

"S-L-O-W-D-O-W-N. Slow down? Hah!" Mabel giggled. "You just can't handle the Mabel, can you?"

NO

"Is that all you're gonna say?" She shrugged. "I guess it must be hard to say really long stuff with just this little board… how do we make this work?"

YES AND NO ANSWERS

Mabel snapped her fingers. "Great idea! So how's being a ghost, bro bro?"

The triangle was knocked off to the side of the board, as if the one controlling it had just swatted it away in sheer frustration.

"Oh, yeah, yes and no answers. So… are you having fun with all your cool ghostly powers?"

NO

"No? Well, I guess that's not suprising." Mabel looked down. "I haven't really been having much fun either without you. I really missed you. A lot of people said I could talk to them about you, but whenever I tried they get all uncomfortable and go away. I don't like making people uncomfortable." She stroked the Board. "Besides, whenever I felt down, the only person I really wanted to talk to, was you. You know what I mean?"

YES

Mabel smiled. "You get me. You missed me too, right?"

YES

"Haha, that was a silly question! I'm just glad to have you back, bro bro."

Over the next few hours, Mabel asked her brother about every yes-or-no question a person could conceivably come up with. Some of them were incredibly silly, like: do ghosts wear clothes? Is it funny when you're standing around naked in front of a bunch of people and they can't see you? Some of them were rather serious: Do you ever get lonely in the Mystery Shack?

To the last one, Dipper gave a rather interesting answer: I DON'T KNOW.

"Huh?" Mabel yawned; it was the early hours of the morning, after all. "What do you mean you don't know, bro bro?"

The triangle didn't move immediately, so Mabel laid her head down on the warm, fluffy carpet. Her eyes began to droop, and before she knew it she had completely dropped off.

After a second, the lights shut off and the curtains drew themselves, leaving Mabel sleeping peacefully on her fluffy carpet. She sighed happily and curled up, her dreams full of-

The door was thrown open, and Mabel jumped up to see Grunkle Stan standing in his pyjamas, eyes as wide as his grin. "Hot Belgian Waffles, I just realized! I actually talked to Dipper!" He dove for the Board, screaming, "DIIIIPPERRRRR!"


	6. Chapter 6

The next day Mabel was again woken up by an airhorn from Soos. This time, however, she took it a little less well than yesterday.

"Ughhhhh…" She groaned and rolled over. "I'm tired, and I just had the strangest dream…"

Soos blinked. "About unicorns?"

"No," Mabel sat up and rubbed her baggy eyes. "I was talking to Di- I was talking to some ghost, and then Grunkle Stan tackled us…" She paused. "And then I had a dream about punching unicorns. Woo, two dreams in one night!"

"Oh, dude," Soos shook his head. "The dream was real."

"The unicorn punching?"

"No, Dipper! Mr Pines was telling me all about it." The man rubbed the back of his head. "To think he was here all along… I dunno how I feel. Was he watching me all this time? Because that's sorta creepy..."

"Don't be like that, Soos!" Mabel got out of bed. "This is Dipper we're talking about. He probably watches you, but he watches everything that looks even the slightest bit strange! Isn't that right?"

Mabel looked over to the Ouija Board, which spelt out a firm YES. "See?"

"Huh." Soos backed out of the room. "Well, see you for breakfast, Hambone!"

Once she left, Mabel put her hands on her hips and stared down at the Board. "Good morning, Dipper!"

GOOD MORNING

She broke into a massive grin. "Oh, wow, last night really wasn't one of those awful dreams, was it? You're really here!" She picked up the Board and skipped over to her door, humming a happy song as she made her way towards the living room.

Much like before, Stan was sitting in front of the TV with a coffee and newspaper. Soos was leaning on the arm of the chair, absorbed by the commercials.

"Morning, Mabel." Stan waved, looking particularly tired.

"Morning, Grunkle Stan! Morning, Soos!" Mabel blinked. "Where's Grunkle Ford?"

"Stanford?" Stan took a sip of his coffee. "My brother's been acting weird lately and he won't tell me what's up."

Ford walked in the room, right up against Mabel. She felt his breath on the back of her neck and jumped away in shock.

"See, that's what I'm talking about!"

"Talking about what?" Ford crossed his arms. "I'm Stanford Pines, the Author."

Stan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Poindexter, we all know. You don't have to tell us twice." He pointed at Ford's arm with his coffee, causing the liquid to slosh around and spill. "And what's that black thingymajig on your arm anyway?"

Ford quickly covered the bracelet up with his other hand, narrowing his eyes and remaining silent. The two brothers stared at each other like that for a moment.

Then Soos cleared his throat. "Haha, you could cut the tension with a knife right now." He hesitated. "The only thing that would make this more awkward is if somebody came in right now."

"Hey, guys!" Wendy stuck her head out from the back entrance. "I found these super weird looking tracks as I was driving to work, and I was wondering…" She trailed off as she saw everyone staring at her in silence. "Uh… what's going on?"

"You." Ford's eyes narrowed. Everybody looked to him with confusion.

"What about me?"

"Ahem, it's nothing… I have to go down to my lab." Ford quickly backed away and left, still clutching his arm. Stan frowned after him, got up out of his chair and followed.

Mabel raised an eyebrow. "That was really strange…" She shrugged it off, and grinned at Wendy. "But do I have something to show you!"

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "I still have no idea what just happened there."

"Look!" Mabel pulled out the Ouija Board. "It's Dipper."

"Dipper…. What? Okay, can somebody tell me what's going on, right now? Soos?"

Soos rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, yesterday Hambone thought she saw a ghost, so Mr Pines 2 gave her that Board thing. And now it turns out Dipper is a ghost in the Mystery Shack!"

Wendy raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Riiight. And, ring ring! My Mom's on the phone, so I'm getting out of here."

"Wait, it's true!" Mabel held up the Board. "Look, it's gonna move any second now…"

The triangle did not move. "Any second now… You gotta believe me!"

After a moment, Wendy placed a hesitant hand on Mabel's shoulder. "Look, Mabel. I know you're not lying about your brother. But maybe staying cooped up in the Mystery Shack isn't doing wonders for your head." She grinned and stuck a thumb behind her. "How's about the two of us ditch work and go hang around town for a bit?"

Mabel shrugged her off. "I don't know, Wendy… I'm going to go see what's up with Dipper. Maybe later!" She dashed away to her room, leaving Wendy and Soos together alone.

"That's funny, it was working earlier." Soos laughed nervously as Wendy put her hands on her hips and glared down at the man. "Hey… haha, what's up, dawg?"

"Is this some kind of sick joke?!" Wendy exploded before continuing in a quieter, furious tone. "She's been here two days and one of you morons has convinced her Dipper's haunting the Mystery Shack? How's she going to feel when it turns out that board's just a fake?"

"Wendy, it's not. Stanford gave her that board, and it totally works."

"You'd better be telling the truth." Wendy backed out of the house. "Anyway, I'm not staying around here with this going on. Seeya around, boss!"

"Bye, Wendy!" Soos waved, then looked around. "Wait… Mr Pines? Mabel? Who's gonna help me set up today?"

Mabel was sitting on her rug, another torn out piece of the scrapbook in front of her, looking down at the Ouija Board with a worried expression.

"Dipper?" She called, but still nothing happened. "Come on, bro bro, where are you?"

It was as if he had completely disappeared. Mabel anxiously chewed on her hair, saying again, "Dipper?"

Still no response. Mabel sighed and slumped down on her pink carpet. She started doodling on her scrapbook page, thinking about how much a waste it was to tear it out.

That was when her door flew open, as if from a blast. Mabel jumped up, but there was no one on the other side.

Then the triangle on the Ouija Board began to move, very frantically. She could hardly make out the message:

GO TO FORDS LAB

"Wha-" Mabel didn't get to finish her sentence before her dresser was suddenly flung violently into the wall. All of her room began to shake and whistle as if there was a great gust of wind passing through it.

Mabel jumped to her feet and dashed out of the room. The invisible force followed her, slamming cupboards and whistling through woodwork as she raced through the hallways and into the gift shop.

"Oh, hey, Hambone." Soos gave a wave. "We're just about to open-"

"No time to explain!" Mabel ran up to the vending machine, but she quickly jumped back as it began to spark and sway from side to side. As she watched it was ripped right off its hinges and tossed aside, smoking and beeping.

For a second Mabel could only stare in shock before turning to Soos. "Really no time to explain!" Then she disappeared into the dark hallway behind.

Soos waved. "Uh, okay. As long as you tell me later." He paused, looking down at the busted machine. "I should put that back."

Mabel dashed into the elevator, the buttons already being pressed for her by the invisible force. She took a second to breathe as the numbers ticked up to three.

"Haha, Dipper, so what's all this about?" She laughed nervously, then remembered: "Oh, darn! I left the Luigi Board upstairs!"

The doors then opened, and Mabel's jaw dropped.

The first thing she noticed was the giant monsterous thing pressing somebody up against the side of a wall, choking them with a human six-fingered hand.

And then she noticed the poor soul being choked was… "Grunkle Stan!"

The monster turned, and in that moment Stan delivered a brass-knuckles punch to the side of its face. It roared and fell to the side, letting the old man fall to the ground, gasping for air.

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel ran over. "What happened?"

"Kid…" Stan's purple face was gradually returning to normal. "That wasn't… Stanford…"

"No, it wasn't." There was a deep voice from where the monster had fallen, and Mabel turned to see a familiar monster, with white congealed skin and buglike red eyes. On one of its arms was a black bracelet, and below that bracelet appeared to be Ford's regular six-fingered arm. "I'm surprised it took you so long to find out."

"The shapeshifter!" Mabel gasped. Then she pointed at the monster's hand. "But, eww, what's happening there?"

"One of the Author's sly tricks." It then shifted into a massive gremloblin, yet the hand remained the same. "That doesn't matter to you though, child. I'm still going to tear your forms into pieces!"

"Kid, run…" Stan weakly shoved his great niece away, but she held firm, grabbing his hand and getting out a grappling hook.

"No way, Grunkle Stan! I've got a plan!"

The shapeshifter slowed, hissing. The last thing it wanted was to be caught in another trap.

Mabel pointed the grappling hook at the shapeshifter… then dropped it and dashed towards the elevator, pulling her Grunkle along. "Haha, psyche!"

The shapeshifter roared and charged as the elevator doors began to close. It tried to shift into something small, but the black bracelet prevented it from squeezing in.

Grunkle Stan started weakly laughing, holding onto Mabel's shoulder for stability as the elevator started climbing floor. "Oh… wow. Thanks, kid, I thought I was a goner. H-how'd you know I was in trouble?"

"Dipper told me." Mabel said simply. The old man blinked, rubbing his neck.

"Wow… Always knew that kid-"

They were interrupted as three claws thrust themselves out of the elevator floor. The doors opened, and Mabel and Stan quickly jumped out, running for the exit. The shapeshifter clawed its way out of the shaft and shifted into Stanford, a twisted glare on his face.

"You can't escape me!" Mabel and Stan came to the entrance, where they saw the vending machine had been replaced against the wall. Stan roughly shoved it and it toppled to the ground, paving the way to a gift shop full of surprised tourists. The two got out of the entrance and turned just in time to see the shapeshifter emerge, taking on the form of a massive one-eyed red monster. "I'm going to kill and eat all of you!"

It was at that moment a massive wind seemed to sweep through the shop, picking up souvenirs in a whirlwind. The shapeshifter looked over and began to laugh.

"A ghost? Haha, I fear no-" The cashier came flying off the counter and smacked the monster in it's one big eye. It roared in pain and stumbled back, blinking rapidly. "Argh, nice try. But it's going to take more than that to defeat me!"

All the lights in the gift shop smashed one by one. Then the monster began to be pelted with items from the giftshop; stone tablets, glass jars, a mounted bear head with a unicorn horn attached to it. The monster tried to brace itself but only managed to slip and fall backwards, smashing a hole into the side of the Mystery Shack.

Everything suddenly stopped moving, just hanging in the air as the shapeshifter picked itself up.

"Hmph." It said, then shifted back into Ford. "So I may not be able to beat you right now, with that ghost. But I will have my vengeance!"

The shapeshifter ran away, and all of a sudden all the levitating items dropped down. Mabel, Stan and Soos looked at each other in shock, before turning to the frozen audience of tourists.

"Um, uh…" Stan put on a wide smile and started clapping. "Give it up for our actors! This was a one time special for all of you, make sure to tip Mr Mystery over there!"

Everyone burst out in applause. Stan stayed with that grin on his face for a second more before turning to Mabel. "Now, let's go find my brother. I think I know where he went."


End file.
